Happiness comes at a cost
by Senbei x Cup Ramen
Summary: "Make me a sandwich." Gray stared at an inanimate Lucy lying face-down in a pile of tomato sauce. Yes, tomato sauce. And no, Natsu did not just exit her apartment seconds ago. Holy crud, what had he done? A dare gone horribly wrong.


**Haro peoples! I be back ;D ...REPOSTING. Fanfiction deleted the original so here is Senbei repostin' like a badass ;D ! Anyhow, my heart has just chipped a bit since your responses to the original work has been erased. Forever. *CRIES A RIVER* And it is a shame since I wanted my comeback to be all BAMMMMM SHIZZLESSS! But alas, *Wipes tear*. This is the sequel to OST so it might make more sense after you read that one :D  
**

**Disclaimer:** I does not own Fairy Tail :D

**NOTE: I WILL be back by the end of June/beginning of July with a new work so be looking forward to that one ;D **

* * *

"Make me a sandwich." Of course, Gray had meant no _serious_ harm when he dared Natsu to say that to Lucy and of course, he had not _intended_ for this to escalate into _the_ most epic couple argument in Fairy Tail history. Not at all.

"_Gray…_"

The ice mage twiddled his fingers as he faced an angry Erza. Wait no, scratch that – If looks could kill, Gray would have had his family jewels swiftly removed, stomped on and disposed of to some other dimension like Edolas; his head would have rolled off a few seconds later and Romeo would have had a new (yet very gruesome) soccer ball to play with, his arms and legs would have probably been dumped in Tokyo Bay (wherever _that_ was) for the fish to feed on and his organs _may or_ _may not_ have been donated to Juvia for safe-keeping.

"Y-yes Erza?" He inwardly rejoiced the fact that he had visited the potty moments earlier.

"Go apologise." The red-head motioned to the guild's double doors that had been violently slammed closed when the *cough* aforementioned couple stormed out of the building not too long ago.

"But-"Gray squeaked like a little girl when Erza sent him _that_ look but this time, he wasn't going to have any of that – I mean, it wasn't _his _fault that two of his closest teammates, or so he had hoped, decided to neglect him! For a whole two weeks as well! The nerve! Ugh, and the way they would blush and stutter every time the guild (and him) talked of little Natsus and Lucys running around Fairy Tail just made it so much worse. It was just _so…weird._

"_Gray._" Erza repeated again, in that frightening tone of hers.

He took in a deep breath. _Gray Fullbuster, you are a man and men don't give up._ With his new resolve, his dark orbs met Erza's slightly red ones and a small smirk that he hoped showed some of his bravery and determination formed on his mug. He folded his arms together, nose in the air.

"N-"

* * *

"Stupid couple and your stupid couple fights and your stupid couple-ness." Gray muttered under his breath as he kicked a stray pebble to god knows where. He nursed his half-broken jaw with a bag of peas that Mirajane had so kindly offered him – _apparently, _it was supposed to work better than his ice magic. Psh, he didn't care anymore. He may as well get this over and done with, so he did. He unenthusiastically trudged to Lucy's apartment, sighing and pouting while doing so.

"_Woohoo._"Gray whooped dejectedly as he approached the said building. _Lovely, part 1 of the apology._ He rolled his eyes – Couples just _had_ to come in twos, didn't they? Bracing himself for whatever Lucy had in store for him, he reached for the doorknob that was, until some pink-haired idiot from the inside decided to open it as well. Wait, what?

"N-Natsu!" Gray stuttered, obviously surprised – Perhaps they had already made-up? Or not. For the first time since 'the argument' (as the guild had decided to label it), Gray felt utter dread and guilt swallow him. He received but a vacant and eerily _terrifying_ glare (?) from the dragonslayer. Anyhow, it was a look he had never, in his life seen on Natsu's face before and somehow, he felt compelled to reach out to his friend…or was it ex-friend?

"N-Natsu, listen!" Gray placed a hand on the dragonslayer's shoulder, hoping to stop him from going to wherever he was going to.

"It was my bad." He confessed, only to have his hand shoved off when Natsu stormed off to his destination with a grunt.

"M-maybe you guys could go to that new Magic Prank store around the corner?" Gray weakly cried out to his friend/ex-friend's retreating figure, his features lighting up when the latter stopped in his tracks. Natsu turned his head back.

"We were going to go there this afternoon." He rasped out before continuing his walk. Keyword: _were._ Okay, so _maybe_ it would have been a better idea to confront Lucy instead.

* * *

"L-Lucy?" Gray cried weakly upon entering her house.

Funny, it was usually all _bright_ and stuff, at least it was whenever he visited *cough* broke in. The ice-mage raised a confused brow when he spotted a smashed lamp just in the corridor. Lucy was _always_ fixated on getting things clean. This was weird. Of course, things only got weirder as he made his way to Lucy's bedroom – Broken items became the norm and the walls were practically covered by scorch marks. _Okay Gray, t-they're just a very active couple._ He tried to reassure himself with a small laugh. He was about to enter the bedroom when a huge gust of wind assaulted him, sending various scrap pieces of paper his way.

"W-What the hell?" He managed as he sheltered his eyes from the dust and rubbish. And of course, he just _had_ to see the blonde sprawled on her bed. Motionless.

"Y-yo Lucy!" He waved, smiling. No reply.

"Uhm, Lucy?" He approached the celestial mage – maybe she had fallen asleep while bawling her eyes out? _Typical Lucy._ Gray nodded vigorously before placing his gaze on the said teen. Wait, this seemed so horribly wrong. She looked kinda…uhm…wow. Would someone usually sleep like this? Y'know, with their leg at a 90 degree angle and face flat on the pillow. Not to mention, her arm looked scarily out of place.

"Uh, Lucy?" Then Gray took in his surroundings. Her room was a complete mess, shreds of paper and broken vases, broken chairs, broken pillows, broken _everything_ scattered on the ground. The scorch marks had been more apparent and _fresh, _reeking of that smoky smell and then, there was something else. Another unpleasant smell that wafted in the air. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the metallic scent.

"What _is_ that-"_Oh my gosh_. This could not be happening.

"N-no way…" Gray stared at the red. The red that seeped through the blonde's tank top into the blankets and bed-sheets. The red that had so generously painted the walls. The red that had stained the whole bedroom.

"Oh gosh, Lucy! D-don't go scaring me like that!" Gray wiped his rapidly perspiring forehead, a lopsided grin covering his face.

"I knew you liked tomato sauce!" He gave her a thumbs up, tongue gaily protruding from the side of his mouth. Silence.

"Err, are you still angry at me? Gosh, Lucy! Maybe we should fix that _horrible _posture of yours first!" He laughed as he grabbed her arm and _attempted_ to place in into a more _natural_ angle. _Crack._

"O-oh! Maybe that wasn't such a good option." Gray smiled, backing away from his teammate's lifeless figure. Tic-toc. Tic-toc. Tic-toc. Tic-toc.

"Holy _mother_ of Ultear – whohappenstobeUr." Gray screamed like a little girl as he tore his hair out. What the hell happened? How? Why? He paced around the room in circles, his eyes falling on a ripped-up piece of paper on the blonde's desk. He took in a deep breath as he lifted the paper to his face. Maybe this was just some sick joke! "Pranked!" It would read on the sheet…right? With shaking hands, he scanned the messily-written text.

"Good Bai whirledd." …Oh f***. Somehow, he had the feeling that she didn't commit suicide. Somehow, this reminded him of a certain pink-haired dragonslayer's messy hand-writing. Somehow, he had the feeling that she had been, oh I don't know, brutally murdered? Holy shit. What was he supposed to do now? One of his best-friends had been…killed…by another one of his best friends…What would happen to him? What would happen to Fairy Tail? What would Erza do? Oh god, he didn't want to think about it. And shit, there was the council. _Ur, what am I supposed to do now?_ He tugged at his hair, biting his bottom lip in frustration and as if she were speaking to him, another gust of wind attacked the room. The ice-mage chuckled to himself.

"That's right…" He muttered under his breath, his hair shadowing his eyes. Gray stepped forward to Lucy's limp body – she had no pulse…as expected.

"Lucy…I'm so sorry." His voice was merely a whisper – not as if she could hear anyway psh.

"So…RIP." Ur had taught him to _grow the bleep up and get over it_ when he dropped his ice-cream – this wasn't much different, right? He shakily dragged her by the arms across to the bathroom, a trail of red marking his path – Yes, he had lost one friend already and he couldn't afford to lose another one. Damn it, he'd pretend he saw nothing and for now, he'd have to make sure no one else found out about this. Gray Fullbuster had officially snapped.

"First, we'll have to make sure no one sees you." He panted as he closed the bathroom doors. Great, now he had to add 'talking to corpses' to his hobby list.

"Phewf!" he wiped off the sweat from his brow before eyeing the room.

"Ice-make…err…Morgue!" He whispered so that the neighbours couldn't hear him – God, why did _everyone_ have the undying tendency to name each and every one of their moves? Oh well, he grinned hesitantly as a layer of thick ice blanketed the room – "And that should last for at least 3 days." He nodded, somewhat proud of his handiwork. He looked at Lucy's body that lay motionless on the floor – _LOL, it'd be freaky if she decided to move_, he concluded, smiling. But something wasn't right…

"Hmm…" Gray rubbed his chin, not bothered by the fact that he wasn't mourning or as traumatised as he should be – the adrenaline had probably kicked in and meh, sanity never was a Fairy Tail thing and he probably lost it all just roughly an hour or so ago.

"We should hide you better." He proceeded to dump her into the bath tub, thankful that it was shielded by curtains. Wonderful! The ice-mage made his way out of the apartment to his next destination – the guild. He walked in silence, reflecting on his actions. Oh god, what did he just do? And realisation dawned in on him. Oh dear. Had he just assisted in the (temporary) disposal of a body? Of Lucy's body? Oh shit. Lucy died? And Natsu was the one who killed her?

"Oh my goodness gracious me." He squealed like Mirajane number two. Gray proceeded to cup his mouth with a hand, shocked and somewhat mentally-unstable. Natsu killed Lucy. Natsu killed Lucy. Natsu killed Lucy. NATSU KILLED LUCY.

He mad-dashed to the guild, nearly tearing the hinges off the door and shocking everyone in the process. He didn't care. Where was he? Where was Natsu? He whipped his head madly in all directions, hoping to find his target.

"Natsu." He trembled in cold sweat and pure anger and shock and whatever else crossed his mind. He turned to face the dragonslayer whose lips were raised in a wild grin, whose onyx eyes seemed somewhat _satisfied_.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" Gray spat, fists shaking and eyes twitching alternately. He ignored the confused and disturbed stares he received from various guild members - Good for them, Gray thought to himself. They had probably never witnessed a person who was in serious, and I mean _serious_ need of medical/psychological attention as much as him before.

"I was bored. But then, it got amusing." Natsu chuckled and it didn't take long for Gray to notice that the dragonslayer was drunk.

"Oops, I spilled the beans!" Natsu hiccupped and laughed like a child.

"Luce sure is gonna be mad at me when she finds out!" He giggled in his seat while using his hands in an attempt to cover his mouth up, much to the horror of Gray.

"Luce? _Luce? There is no Luce_!" Gray screamed, hands flying to the air, only to earn a confused look from Natsu.

"What's gotten into _your_ pants today?" The dragonslayer raised a brow and Gray paused in his break-down.

"Teeheeheeee! Are you wearing a bikini today 'cos it sure looks like it~ _Sexyyy!_" Natsu fell into a fit of hysterical laughter and proceeded to roll on the dirty guild floor and Gray, Gray just looked at him in utter shock – Was this what happened after you killed your girlfriend? Probably not…He rubbed his temples in an attempt to think clearly. Could it be possible? Could it be possible that what he had witnessed was merely a hallucination from Erza's not-so-gentle punch?

"I'll…be back." He cried as he ran to Lucy's apartment…yet again.

"Toodles _handsome~_" Natsu did a blow-kiss before exploding into another fit of giggles.

"Where did Gray-sama go?" Juvia asked the dragonslayer cautiously – She was assessing the situation…Did she have another rival on her hands?

"Oh, probably to Luce's place." Natsu grinned evilly, cheek pressed on the ground. He cackled to himself when Juvia left a trail of dust behind her, probably leaving to her next destination: Lucy's apartment.

"Perfect."

* * *

"What the bleep? This isn't-Wait, what? Holy shit, what the eff is going on?" Gray stared incredulously at Lucy's apartment. It was sparkling clean and a small shred of the thing called _hope_ hit Gray. Hard. Maybe Lucy was…_ALIVE_! But then he stroked his chin. Was he getting ahead of himself? What if his hopes were trampled on, crushed and flushed down the toilet just like Erza would to his ding-dong if he squished _another_ one of her strawberry cakes? He ran a hand through his tuft of raven black hair.

"Gray, get a hold of yourself." Maybe Happy or some other poor soul visited and decided to hide the _rest_ of the evidence? He gulped. That was highly possible (A/N: Really Gray, really?).

"Well, it's now or never…" The ice-mage reluctantly made his way to Lucy's bathroom, feeling his stomach lurch when he saw white puffs of steam roll from underneath the door – Oh god, that was probably his _ice-make morgue…_

He winced, shutting his eyes as he opened the door with full-force – something that was unneeded when someone else…or _something_ else from the inside of the room decided to open it as well.

"You're not going to leave alive now that you've seen her body!" Gray (still with closed eyes) screamed as he heaved the figure into his chest – He could conjure up some ice-blade dagger thingy and with one clean hit-

"Gray-sama!" A familiar voice shouted from the corner.

"What the _hell_ are you doing Gray!" And then there was another _very_ familiar voice.

Gray cracked open an eye to see a towelled Lucy shooting a death glare at him.

"What the fu-"

"How the-" Oh shit, he turned shakily to face a half-frozen, half-seething Juvia in the corridor and he immediately knew…that things would go very, very badly for him.

* * *

"Yo Luce!" Natsu slung an arm around his girlfriend, rubbing his cheek against hers like there was no tomorrow.

"Natsu!" The blond laughed as she softly pushed him on the chest, attempting to escape from his embrace.

"And the couple have…made-up?" Levy tilted her head to a smiling Mirajane.

"M-hm." The beaming barmaid polished the next tumbler, watching the said couple with adoration.

"But I do wonder, what happened to Gray…" Erza supplied from the next seat.

When did she get there? Levy decided against asking and the three females accordingly enjoyed the one-minute silence following the red-head's question.

"I thought he went to Lucy's apartment…Then again, shouldn't he be back already?" Mirajane placed a finger to her chin, staring at the ceiling in apprehensive wonder. Levy eyed a giggling Lucy and grinning Natsu.

"Who knows."

And as if to answer their question, they heard a loud shriek.

"GRAY-SAMA YOU PERVERT!" Yelled a blushing Juvia as she threw the said ice-mage through the double doors.

"Urghh…" He looked battered and bruised – was that a whip mark on his face? *Cough* Courtesy of Lucy…

"J-Juvia, you've got this all wr-" He raised a shaking arm to gain her attention, only to be swiftly ignored.

"No! It is not Gray-sama's fault! It is only natural to have some accumulated sexual tension!" Juvia cried as she ran to the bar in panic, stepping on a 70% dead Gray in the midst of doing so. She paced around, biting her thumbnail in hesitation.

"B-but…Juvia is afraid she does not have enough experience to match that of Gray-sama's!" The water-mage dropped to a depressed and sobbing heap. Gray winced as he got on his knees and crawled towards Lucy and Natsu, ignoring Juvia who was off in Lala-land and the stares that he received from the rest of the guild.

"What do you want to ice bastard?" Natsu shot him his usual, pissed-off glare.

"Natsu! Be nice!" Lucy smacked him playfully on the head and the two began bickering like a married couple, forgetting Gray in the process.

"N-Natsu, Lucy!" Gray struggled to find the right words – he had never really managed to apologise…even if the whole disposing of Lucy's body thing had been a part of his imagination and all…

"Hm?"

"I-I, I'm sorry…" He looked to the ground in guilt.

"What for?" Natsu spat, obviously confused.

"N-Natsu…" Gray was getting teary-eyed, his rival was being so…_nice_…even when he had done all those horrible things to him! God, he felt like a jerk.

"Geez Gray, you always go worrying about the small things." Lucy laughed when the ice-mage stared incredulously at them.

"Don't go blaming yourself for something that we started,"

"And plus, I know that you're a friend who I can depend on – a friend for life." Lucy continued and Gray's eyes widened.

"Heck, it's not as if you're the type of guy who'd dump me in some ice-covered bathroom morgue or some guy who'd threaten me with some ice dagger!" She laughed it off albeit with a hint of malice in her voice. Natsu furrowed his brows in confusion.

THUD. Okay, never mind. Gray collapsed on the ground as soon as those words left his friend's…or was it ex-friend's, lips?

"Seriously Luce?" Natsu looked at her, obviously surprised.

"Don't even talk about it." She huffed, folding her arms across her chest, earning her a laugh from her boyfriend.

"Don't laugh idiot! This was all _your _fault!"

"My bad, my bad! But you gotta say…it was damn worth it!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." She sighed in defeat.

Yes, they had initially planned to visit the magic prank-store in the afternoon but as they say – the early bird catches the worm! Who the heck would be screwed to wait 1 bloody hour in some long queue? And yes, Gray _had_ been pestering about babies and whatnot recently…so what was the harm?

"And Luce…"

"Hm?"

"I love you." Natsu pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Me too." She smiled.

"So, who's our next victim?"

"Hmm…We should get thinking about that."

Apparently, Mirajane and Gray's torture sessions weren't satisfying enough for the couple.

* * *

**THE. SENBEI. WILL. BE. BACK. ;D **


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